Banks are failing to increase lending to small and medium-sized businesses, despite a fresh push from the Government to offer more finance to companies to help to kick-start the economy.

Over the three months to September, banks and building societies raised mortgage lending to households at the fastest pace since records began five years ago, but loans to the corporate sector were unchanged.

In its latest credit conditions survey, the Bank of England found that the availability of credit to households was expected to increase again over the next quarter. The £80 billion Funding for Lending Scheme, which came to